In the ‘70’s and ‘80’s tennis was huge.  Not big … but HUGE! Back then my wife Sandy and I were living in a townhouse development that had their own courts – that was no big deal, every new apartment building or park had tennis courts. 

Jimmy Connors, John McEnroe, Bjorn Borg, Chris Evert, and Martina Navratilova were household names – who are the big tennis stars now? Are any current American tennis players household names?

Those tennis courts where I used to live are gone – they’re not new townhouses, just a plowed-up empty lot. Those Northwest Tennis Clubs built by Harv and Marv are now serving different exercise purposes … tennis is off the radar screen. 

I’m not knocking tennis – I think it’s a great game – I’m just documenting its decline and wondering what went wrong. 

Well, I think a couple of things happened; one, baby-boomers got older and took up golf because they didn’t want to run around on the tennis court, and two, tennis became too “Euro-hip” … it didn’t seem American anymore. 

But those factors shouldn’t have knocked its lights out. As for reason #1, people don’t have to play singles … tennis doubles isn’t much work and is a fun, social game. And for reason #2, who cares if the world rankings are dominated by groovy, Euro types if you just like to play tennis with your friends? Well, people don’t have endless time and money for recreation – so even though they were playing tennis, they weren’t in love with it and were easily taken from the game. 

As you probably know, golf has been slipping the past 5 years. Is it headed down tennis’ path? I don’t think so, but the powers-that-be in the golf world better be aware of golf’s problems and not fool themselves. Most of golf’s gurus are pounding the message of “Grow the Game” – and by that they mean junior golf. Now I’m all for junior golf, but I don’t think that is at the root of the problem. I think the main problem for the golf industry is that middle-age people try it and quit. Why so many people quit is the problem – not that they didn’t start playing as a kid. For example, my brother Dan grew up playing tennis and later on became a tennis pro – but he doesn’t play tennis anymore. What I’m saying is that taking up a game as a kid doesn’t mean that you’ll be “hooked for life” – as the golf gurus like to say. What matters is whether the game delivers what people are looking for. 

I don’t believe that all of the leaders of the golf and tennis worlds really want their games to be embraced by Middle-America. Tennis always loved to play the role of the limousine-liberal bringing tennis to the “disadvantaged”. This was a great way for them to be “generous” and “inclusive” and still keep their distance from middle-class Americans. Golf has started to do some of the same stuff with their 20/20 programs, etc. 

I know I might sound paranoid, but I believe that the old-school USGA types don’t like public golf and wish that golf was the game of country clubs only (and only blue-blood country clubs). If golf is to have a healthy future, it has to be embraced by middle-class Americans. For too many years golf was played at either snooty country clubs or dumpy public courses. It seems to me that middle-class Americans want high quality public golf courses with good services such as food, carts, etc with a fun, relaxed atmosphere at a reasonable price. If that’s not available, golf could go the way of tennis.